It would not be a shock to hear that the retooled offence of the Calgary Flames supplied two tic-tac-toe goals.

Right?

With the soft-handed presences of Todd Bertuzzi and Michael Cammalleri, those types of conversions appear on a near-nightly basis.

But what might come as a surprise is the identity of the latest highlight architects.

Yes, the unsung gents of the third and fourth lines.

With all six forwards picking up points — the charge of the lesser-light brigade — the Flames used second-period tallies from Matthew Lombardi and Andre Roy to topple the Nashville Predators 3-1 in National Hockey League action Friday at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

"Secondary scoring?" said Adrian Aucoin, taking mock offence. "That’s not much of a compliment."

Said Calgary coach Mike Keenan of his plucky fourth-liners: "They are asked to do an awful lot of work without a lot of notoriety. I’m happy for them, the team’s happy for them . . . a spectacular goal they did score. Again depth, on harder nights, you look for energy from other players and that’s what we are getting right now."

On an evening when marquee skaters on both sides were quiet, it had been left to the third unit to snap 27 minutes of scorelessness.

With precision, the trio made it look easy.

David Moss swept a pass to Curtis Glencross. From the right corner, Glencross one-timed a hard pass to the net’s front — precisely where Lombardi was heading. So good was the feed that, even without good wood on the shot, the puck went in.

The fourth line matched.

Dustin Boyd rapped the puck off the Viagra sign and, his geometry being true, Eric Nystrom was able to swoop away with the thing.

Into Nashville territory Nystrom sped and, as Shea Weber slid by, he slipped a pass over to Roy, who buried his third goal of the season.

"Ah, it was good," shrugged Roy. "It reminds me of my childhood. When I played pond hockey I used to roof a lot of goals — just kidding."

Nystrom, though, was not joking: "You know what? Roysie’s got a pretty good skillset that not a lot of people know about. He can shoot it as good as anybody on the team. He knows how to put it in the net."

If nothing else, Roy, with his straight-faced celebration, certainly looked like a guy who’s sunk plenty of pucks.

"That’s right — like a 50-goal scorer," said Nystrom, grinning. "I think he did the sword — tucking the sword into the side of the pants."

But, in a burst of post-game honesty, Roy admitted he didn’t think a pass was in the works.

"No," said the hulking winger, laughing. "I wasn’t sure. Because, ‘We’ve got to shoot the puck more,’ we’re always saying that on the bench. But I was positioned well to receive it and Ny saw me."

With J.P. Dumont and Aucoin exchanging third-period counters, Roy’s handiwork ended up as the game-winner — the fifth career GWG.

Which stands out as his favourite?

"Uh," said Roy, after his 499th NHL appearance, "you know that’s not something I really pay attention to or remember. If it happens to be a game-winner? It’s good. You’ll take it."

For an enforcer like Roy, he knows there are times to scrap, times to glide away.

But there’s never a bad time for a tally.

"Let’s say, you get into a good fight and it boosts the team . . . it can feel good," said Roy. "You’re like, ‘Man, I got the team going.’ A goal can also be nice. I don’t get many, obviously, but fighting is part of my role. But right now, we’re getting leads, so you don’t want to change the momentum (by accepting fight invitations). I just go with the flow. If I need to do it, I know I can do it. But the goal feels good, anyways."

Between the three fourth-liners, they received 49 shifts Friday (with Boyd and Nystrom drawing their regular penalty-killing assignments).

"We don’t always score, but I think we do a pretty good job of creating offence," said Nystrom, whose assist was his sixth point — 16th of his career. "For the rate of shifts that we get, the offensive chances that we produce is pretty high. And that’s great for a fourth line."

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scruickshank@theherald.canwest.com

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